Ace and Dorkface
by sylviallewelyn
Summary: Katherine has the flu and Jack, steadfast as always, heads right over to her place to make her feel better. JackxKatherine Modern College AU.


**JackxKatherine ficlet I wrote last night when I was bored and inspired. Fluff ahead. Enjoy!**

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><p>It had been a long time since Jack Kelly had gotten any sleep.<p>

Most of the week he was up at ungodly hours of the morning, editing and re-editing term papers, drinking coffee, and more writing. Yes, that had been his life, and he had hated every second of it — now the week was finished, and it was Friday, and Jack lay there in the bland sheets and slightly lumpy mattress in his apartment bedroom, knowing he would get the best sleep of his life…

Until 2 am, when the blaring noise of his phone ringer at his bedside jolted him from the placidity of sleep.

He groaned, quite annoyed. Who in the world could be calling him at such a crazy hour? Not Crutchie, for sure, he was probably sleeping at this point, as well were the rest of his friends. With a fling of his hand and the incessant buzzing ringing in his ears, he grabbed the slender device, answering the call and putting in on speaker.

"'Ello?"

"Jack…"

Katherine's weak, slightly hoarse voice perked him up a little. They had been in a relatively stable relationship for several months now, and he still had not yet passed that stage where he felt entirely overprotective of his girlfriend. Sitting up, he turned on the table light with his free hand, slight worry in his voice.

"Ace, what's wrong?"

"Jack, I feel like hell. I thought it was just a cold, but nope. I'm like, dying. God. I hate this." As if to affirm her point, within seconds her rattling cough roared through the phone, causing Jack to cringe a little. Poor Katherine never had dealt well with illness, ever, and she sounded worse than with any other disease she'd had.

"It's okay, Katherine, it's okay. Just breathe—"

"My nose is like a plugged faucet," she retorted, still snappy as ever.

"Well, okay, just don't move then." Swinging his legs over the bed, he crammed his feet into his tennis shoes with a grunt. "I'll be over in fifteen."

"Five?"

"Ten," he chuckled, relaxing a little. She couldn't be too bad if she was trying to keep a conversation going. "You'll be fine until then, promise."

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><p>Just shy of ten minutes later, Jack had meandered his way through Katherine's impeccably clean first-floor apartment to her room, where he slowly creaked open the wooden door. There lay the girl, facedown on her bed, moaning like a bored child, a sea of tissues littering the floor right next to the left side where she slept. Jack grinned, just a little. Her messiness was cute.<p>

"'S that you, dorkface?" Came her muffled voice, as she turned over and, wrapping a blanket around her like a shawl, sat up and stared slightly deliriously at Jack. "Or is my fever causing me to see things?"

With a chuckle, Jack went and sat on the bed, twisted slightly to face her. "It's me. Ace… what's eating you? You really only get this sick when you're stressed… and it's not even really full-on cold season yet."

A laugh from her, which led to a small cough. "'Stressed' is putting it lightly. Being editor-in-chief of the newspaper… it's hard… people aren't getting their work done, and I'm left to pick up the slack… and then there's the matter of actually putting the thing together… and then there's my job at dad's paper afterward, so it's like running two papers at once and I hate it because I don't have any time just to relax and be myself and while I love journalism sometimes it just doesn't work and…"

Her breath hitched in her chest as her words sped up, her voice breaking off; Jack saw her hysteria and scooted closer to her, holding her close and letting her soft brown curls fall across his chest. The sound of her ragged breath and small tears mingled in his ears and he sighed, hugging her tighter. How he hated to see her like this. After she had fought for the position she truly wanted here she was, overwhelmed, scared, and so sick she could barely function…

"Sssh, Ace. It's okay. You just need a break from everything. I'm here, and I'm not gonna let you fall through the cracks…"

"I just don't wanna let everybody down!" she retorted, gripping his shirt and swallowing hard, her face contorting in pain. "I've worked so hard and I really want everything to turn out alright and I feel like so many people are counting on me and I don't want to fail and—"

"I'm not counting on you."

Katherine looked up at him with the confusion he expected; her glassy, slightly red eyes said all she was feeling. "What?"

"I said, I'm not counting on you…. Ace, listen. If you fail once, so what? You have so many other chances to make things right. We're freshmen, barely started. Don't let one slip up determine what you think of yourself. Let this go, and move on to what's next. Okay?" Looking down, he smiled at her, ruffling her dark brown hair, and his girlfriend smiled back.

"…I guess you're right… I'll just have to let my co-editor take up half the work… and tell dad I'm taking a bit of leave?"

"That's my girl." He kissed her forehead, wiping her little runny nose with the hem of his shirt. "Now go to sleep, dorkface."

Katherine laughed, and the two lay there in silence for what seemed like hours, as Katherine's heavy breathing slowed into slumber. Jack was sure he was going to be just as sick as Katherine come tomorrow, but he didn't much care. At least they'd be together, and Katherine much happier. He always put her first, and that would never change as long as he could keep loving her.

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><p><strong>Reviews are appreciated!<strong>

**~Anais**


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